Riderville Report

By Greg Urbanoski

Weston Dressler said it best after Sunday’s 28-17 loss to the Montreal Alouettes – the 2012 Saskatchewan Roughriders need to grow up.

The Riders were starting a rookie quarterback in place of Darian Durant but through a combination of stupid penalties, missed field goals and blow assignments, blew an opportunity to take advantage of a Montreal team that was prepared to hand the game over to the Riders

Drew Willy started at quarterback and performed exactly like a rookie quarterback making his first professional start. Montreal threw the kitchen sink at him in terms of blitzes and managed to throw him off his game to the extent he was never able to get a rhythm going. Add to that a whack of penalties and this was a game best appreciated by those who needed to take frequent washroom breaks.

Willy was able to kind of avoid the pressure and keep his head in the game, hitting Kory Sheets for a 38 yard touchdown pass to start the fourth. But Willy did what we have seen all rookie quarterbacks do – get happy feet and force throws. One forced throw led to an interception while another interception

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was the result of Aaron Hargreaves not being able to put his hands on the ball.
It was not a good game for Chris Best, who managed to rack up two procedure penalties because he either couldn’t hear the snap count or forgot it. Dressler was ignored in the first half, but managed to open some stuff in the middle and Getzlaf had a not bad game receiving. Jack Sanders again had a good game, looking like a threat to break a kick off or punt return open when after they bounce off his head. He also ran and caught pretty well as a change up for Sheets.

While the offense had its problems, and I think Rider fans knew things would not run perfectly well with a rookie, it was the defense that was at times baffling and at other times brilliant. In the first quarter, they spotted Montreal two early touchdowns as Montreal went deep on the Riders. The Riders managed to tighten up their defense, but then insisted on shooting themselves in the foot through a combination of ill-timed penalties and laughable efforts at tackling or pass coverage.

Getting flagged 17 times for 181 yards made this game an exercise in futility for the Riders. Whenever they had the opportunity to get some pressure on Montreal, a procedure penalty or roughing the passer penalty would pop up and either short circuit the Riders or extend the Montreal drive.
Some of those penalties could be contested, and indeed Montreal was only called once for running their patented pick play, but that is beside the point. Those stupid penalties were the result of the players letting their emotions gets the better of them instead of the team taking the lead. While in the second half the Riders benefitted from the defense shutting Montreal down, the Riders also benefitted from Montreal dropping several easy balls.

If playing Montreal in two Grey Cups wasn’t enough lessons, the Riders had to know they need to play near perfect against Montreal, capitalizing on their mistakes while reducing their own. The Riders seemed satisfied with their two game winning streaks against Winnipeg and seemed resigned that having a rookie quarterback starting against Montreal in Montreal would result in defeat.

The interesting thing is this year the Riders have not been blown out as they were last year and are in every game. The mistakes and lack of discipline is a sign the team has not yet bought into Rider Head Coach Cory Chamblin and his philosophy of team first.

The poor tackling of the defensive secondary was overshadowed by Montreal running plays at linebacker Shomari Williams to take advantage of his lack of agility or ability at the linebacker position. It was interesting when Sam Hurl, a rookie linebacker the Riders drafted this year, got into the defensive rotation and caused a fumble the Riders recovered but not take advantage of.

Williams may have been a number one draft pick four years ago, but he’s not finding his place in the Rider scheme of things. Hurl may be a rookie but he makes things happen on the Rider defense and is around the ball.

When news came that Durant would not be playing against Montreal, the Riders seemed to have gone into this with the thought that while a win would be great, the stars were aligned against the Riders.

They better not have that thought this week. Hamilton crushed Edmonton to move to within a game of third in the East and while Edmonton and Saskatchewan are tied with 5-6 records, the Riders need to get some separation from the Eskimos.

The Riders start perhaps the two most crucial weeks of the season with Calgary in town on Sunday and BC coming in the Saturday after. If the Riders are going to try to put themselves up as a playoff contender, they need to beat Calgary and while a win against BC would be nice, the Riders are too far behind to make much of a dent against the Lions.

But if the Riders finish third in the west, which is possible, they will have to face Calgary and then BC in order to reach the Grey Cup. Credible performances and wins against both teams would be a healthy step forward towards the playoffs. If they refuse to grow up as Dressler said they needed to do, they stand a good chance of tumbling out of the playoffs with no one else to blame but themselves.